AB1111 NO INCREASED RISK OF ADVERSE EVENTS OF THE WHO-VALIDATED COVID-19 VACCINES IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATIC DISEASES TREATED WITH BIOLOGICS
Authors: M. Yasmine, W. Triki, H. Ferjani, D. Ben Nessib, K. Maatallah, D. Kaffel, W. Hamdi
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2022)

Background The COVID-19 pandemic is a major concern for the management of patients with rheumatic diseases (RD). Indeed, an increasing risk of coronavirus infection has been demonstrated in these patients, explained on the one hand by the chronic inflammation and on the other hand by the immuno-modulating treatments used [1]. In this context, vaccination represent an efficient mean to prevent infections and should be included in the management of these patients. Objectives The objective of our study was to determine the peculiarity of vaccination against SARS-COV2 in patients with RD treated with biologic therapies. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study during August 2021, including patients with RD: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). Sociodemographic data as well as disease characteristics were recorded. Patients were asked to answer a self-questionnaire about SARS-COV2 vaccination: modalities, time between doses, type of vaccine, adverse events, and time to biologic injection. We compared these results between the two groups: group 1 patients on biologics and patients on conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). A significance level was set for p&lt;0.05. Results The study included 102 patients with RD: RA (65.3%) and SpA (34.7%). The mean age was 52.4 ± 13 years [19-77]. There was a female predominance (71 women and 31 men) with a gender ratio of 0.4. The mean duration of disease progression was 7.8 ± 5 years [1-35]. Fifteen percent of patients were on corticosteroids with a mean dose of 6.7 mg [2-20] of prednisone equivalent. A CsDMARD was prescribed alone in 36.3% of cases and combined with a biologic in 18% of cases. SARS-COV2 infection was found in 27.3% of cases, of which 19% had a severe form. Sixty percent of patients received the SARS-COV2 vaccine, and 25% of them received only the first dose. The mean time between the two injections was 27 ± 7.6 days [23-67 days]. The most common type of vaccine was Pfizer (54.4%), Moderna (5.5%), followed by AstraZeneca (20%), Sinovac (16.4%), Johnson (1.8%) and Sputnik (1.8%). Three patients deferred their biotherapy injection by one week. Only one patient discontinued methotrexate therapy for one month. Sixteen patients reported adverse events such as injection site pain (62.5%), disease flare (12.5%) and fatigue and fever (25%). Patients receiving biologics were not at greater risk of SARS-COV2 infection (p=0.076) or hospitalization (p=0.131) compared to patients receiving conventional therapy. Similarly, patients on conventional therapy did not report more adverse events (p=0.678). The vaccination rate was significantly higher in patients on biologics compared to patients on CsDMARD: 72% versus 43%, p=0.004. Conclusion Our work demonstrated that patients treated with biologics adhered to vaccination and did not have more SARS-COV2 infections or adverse events compared to patients on conventional treatment. References [1]Akiyama S, Hamdeh S, Micic D, Sakuraba A. Prevalence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020;80:384-391. Disclosure of Interests None declared